The boss fight with Rusalka in the Water Temple in Chapter 2 of Bravely Default: For the Sequel is an insanely mind cracking one. It will use a water elemental attack ‘Seep’ every 4 turns that hits all party members and is strong enough to KO any member who is not prepared to take a hit, and following that it will create 3 more images of itself that has the same stats at reduced health. The illusions hit as hard as Rusalka and will finish off any party member still alive after taking Seep.

For this battle, I grinded every character up to level 7 white mage and equip them all with the Abate Water ability. This grants all party members the Resist Water status, thus greatly reducing the amount of damage the Rusalka does. The winning setup was a thief with angel bow shooting Qigong Wave every turn, a knight with first turn examine and bloody shield raising its physical defense to 187 and spamming attack every turn, and two white mages for constant healing and esuna with black mage secondary. With this setup, Rusalka’s hit all water attack barely does half life to all my characters. Took it down on the second try.

Main damage dealer with Qigong Wave. He can take out an illusion in one turn with double Qigong Wave.

Angel’s Bow is the strongest physical weapon at this point of the game

The tanker. His job is to use Examine during the first turn to track the real Rusalka from the illusions, and spam regular attack every turn.

I’m not familiar with the battle mechanics but for some reason Rusalka can only hit him for puny damage, both physical and magical, with this setup.

Standard White Mage. Heal every turn and Thundara when healing is not required.

Magic Shell for increased magical defense

Another standard White Mage Setup

Lambent Hat grants Amplify Lightning. Hence, if only one of the white mages needs to attack, Edea will be the one casting Thundara.

The entire party survives the Rusalka’s Seep, taking very little damage

It took 4 days to come up with this winning setup and defeat the boss. This is only Chapter 2 and there is already such a challenging boss fight. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the game has to offer.

I just got here and have those items in addition to two White/Black mage combinations, a knight with sword magic from spell dancer (using thundara to add lightning damage) and a monk with examine. This battle took me a few times, along with some additional leveling. Playing on hard is no joke.